Our Wines

A good share of Byron winemaking takes place in the vineyard, where winemaker Jonathan Nagy selects individual rows and blocks for their potential to express both variety and site; focusing particularly on clones that best exemplify Byron’s balanced, textural and site-expressive style.

Appellation Santa Maria Valley

Composition 100% Pinot Noir

Clones Pommard

Barrel Regime Aged 16 months in 50% new French Oak

Cases Produced 88

Library Vintages:

2016 Nielson Vineyard Pinot Noir

Santa Maria Valley

The Nielson Vineyard’s location at the warmer, eastern end of the Santa Maria Valley accounts for the wine’s dark color and ripe flavor profile. Prior to fermentation, the Pinot Noir clusters were 100% de-stemmed and kept cold for 5 days to accentuate the naturally smooth texture of our estate grown fruit. Rose petal and dark cherry with hints of graphite and green tea.

Clones 2A, 667, Swan, and Pommard

Barrel Regime Aged 16 months in 43% new French oak

Cases Produced

Library Vintages:

2016 Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir

Santa Maria Valley

Julia’s Vineyard is home to Santa Barbara’s oldest producing Pinot Noir vines planted in the 1970s. The fruit for this wine was selected from two low vigor, “old vine” rows planted to the Pommard clone 4. During fermentation, a combination of punch downs and pump-overs is used to circulate the skins and juice, ensuring maximum extraction. A portion of this wine was barrel fermented to encourage oak components to integrate with the wine at an early stage. The core is infused with red fruit, cranberries and spice. The finish is long, smoky and elegant.

Clones Pommard 4 from two rows of low vigor “old vines”

Barrel Regime Aged 16 months in 52% new French Oak

Cases Produced 50

Library Vintages:

2015 Sierra Madre Vineyard Pinot Noir

Santa Maria Valley

Perched on sandy bluffs overlooking the ocean, Sierra Madre is the coolest and westernmost vineyard that we source from in Santa Maria Valley. We selected the fruit for this Pinot Noir from a sandy block planted to Clone 667. After aging in Francois Freres barrels, the resulting wine expresses brambly red fruit and graphite with a hint of wilted rose petal, followed by bright acid and smooth tannins.

Composition 100% Pinot Noir

Clones Swan, 667, Pommard, 2A

Barrel Regime 50% new French oak

Library Vintages:

2015 Monument Pinot Noir

Santa Maria Valley

92+ Points, – The Wine Advocate, September 2017
Monument is our flagship Pinot Noir, blended from the finest barrels from the best blocks on our estate vineyard. Cold winds and sandy soils over adobe hard pan limit root growth in these blocks and lend this wine a great intensity, heightened aromatics and firm structure. The light crop in 2015 produced small berries and small clusters leading to a concentrated expression of Pinot Noir. Barrel fermentation adds distinctive smoky notes and hints of toasted brown spice while providing the wine with the backbone and depth to age gracefully.

Appellation Santa Maria Valley

Composition 100% Pinot Noir

Clones 2A, Pommard, Swan, Benedict Selection

Barrel Regime 100% French, 69% new

Cases 300

Library Vintages:

2015 Rita’s Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir

Sta. Rita Hills

Byron’s bottling from the high-elevation Rita’s Crown Vineyard is noteworthy for its savory profile, accentuated by our use of new Taransaud barrels. The palate is rich, but focused with notes of black currants, pomegranate and brown spices along with an underlying salinity reminiscent of the wine’s coastal roots—Rita’s Crown is less than 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

Appellation Sta. Rita Hills

Composition 100% Pinot Noir

Clones 828

Barrel Regime 57% new French oak

Library Vintages:

2015 La Encantada Vineyard Pinot Noir

Sta. Rita Hills

90 Points – The Wine Advocate, September 2017
La Encantada is our westernmost vineyard site in the Sta. Rita Hills. Prior to fermentation, we de-stem all the clusters from this vineyard to preserve the expressive aromatics and juicy textural elements that are signatures of this organically farmed site. Our La Encantada Pinot Noir has lush aromas of ripe black berries, violets, and a hint of spice. It is a hedonistic and powerful wine suited which benefitted from aging in new Francois Freres barrels.

Appellation Sta. Rita Hills

Composition 100% Pinot Noir

Clones 777

Barrel Regime 100% French, 55% new

Cases 225

Library Vintages:

2015 John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir

Sta. Rita Hills

One of the region’s newest and most exciting plantings, Jonathan Sebastiano Vineyard produces wines noted for their layered complexity. The nose is brimming with dark plums and strawberries alongside chalky mineral notes. A combination of partial barrel and 30% whole cluster fermentation yields a sublime and harmonious wine that boasts alluring aromatics, a textured palate and well-integrated tannins.

Clones Clones 4 and 95 from Blocks O and I

Cases 300

Library Vintages:

2016 Nielson Vineyard Chardonnay

Santa Maria Valley

The Chardonnay vines in our Nielson Vineyard feature cuttings from the original “Wente” clone planted on our estate in 1964. The clusters we select contain an optimal mix of berry sizes: the larger, riper berries provide the wine’s rich stone fruit flavors while the smaller ones contribute to the wine’s firm acidity and underlying minerality. This wine benefits from cool temperature barrel fermentation utilizing native yeast, and the lees are stirred every two weeks for enhanced mouthfeel and texture.